Issue: GitHub Actions says workflow is not valid because of ${{ !env.ACT }}

[merlinstardust]

Expected behaviour

GitHub Actions should not error regarding ${{ !env.ACT }}

Actual behaviour

GitHub Actions says workflow is not valid because of ${{ !env.ACT }}

The workflow is not valid. .github/workflows/deploy.yml (Line: 11, Col: 13): Unrecognized named-value: 'env'. Located at position 2 within expression: !env.ACT

Workflow and/or repository

Erroring Workflow

workflow

name: Deploy
on:
    push:
        branches:
            - release
    # run for every pull request
    pull_request: {}
jobs:
    deploy:
        name: Deploy
        if: ${{ !env.ACT }} # skip during local actions testing
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        strategy:
            matrix:
                node: [12]
        steps:
            - name: Checkout repo
              uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - name: Setup node
              uses: actions/setup-node@v1
              with:
                  node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}

            - name: 📥 Download deps
              uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
              with:
                  useLockFile: false

            - name: Deploy
              run: npx semantic-release@15

[github-actions]

Issue is stale and will be closed in 14 days unless there is new activity

[merlinstardust]

Keep

[catthehacker]

That's a problem with GitHub and not Act.

[merlinstardust]

@catthehacker how do you suggest I fix it? Who should I contact? The docs for act include this line, but if it doesn't work with GitHub, that's a bug that should be fixed.

[catthehacker]

act docs mention this but only for a step and it works on GitHub Actions, create issue on https://github.com/actions/runner to implement support for non-existing environment variables in job context of if:

act/README.md

Lines 286 to 296 in dcbd583

	# Skipping steps
	Act adds a special environment variable `ACT` that can be used to skip a step that you
	don't want to run locally. E.g. a step that posts a Slack message or bumps a version number.
	```yml
	- name: Some step
	if: ${{ !env.ACT }}
	run: |
	...
	```

[ChristopherHX]

If you ask me your statement in a job-if is a syntax violation and is correctly rejected by github, but act has no such validation. The env context is only evaluated in the runner not the server (I made my own server).
Please consider using the github context instead:

name: Deploy
on:
    push:
        branches:
            - release
    # run for every pull request
    pull_request: {}
jobs:
    deploy:
        name: Deploy
        if: ${{ !github.event.act }} # skip during local actions testing
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        strategy:
            matrix:
                node: [12]
        steps:
            - name: Checkout repo
              uses: actions/checkout@v2

            - name: Setup node
              uses: actions/setup-node@v1
              with:
                  node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}

            - name: 📥 Download deps
              uses: bahmutov/npm-install@v1
              with:
                  useLockFile: false

            - name: Deploy
              run: npx semantic-release@15

And use this event.json file with act or Runner.Client otherwise the Job will run:

{
    "act": true
}

Run act like

act -e event.json

Hint: you can add / append -e event.json as a line into ./.actrc

[diepes]

I also just got the github error below.
Local with act it ran fine. I am trying to skip a job on local.

[Invalid workflow file: .github/workflows/ci.yml#L15](https://github.com/me/repo/actions/runs/2995855128/workflow) The workflow is not valid. .github/workflows/ci.yml (Line: 15, Col: 9): Unrecognized named-value: 'env'. Located at position 2 within expression: !env.ACT .github/workflows/ci.yml (Line: 39, Col: 9): Unrecognized named-value: 'env'. Located at position 2 within expression: !env.ACT